Elena Troshneva is 19 years old and in a special situation. After
beating Serbia’s Andrea Todorovic and Alena Dubkova from Belarus, both
by four games to nil, the local player found herself all of a sudden in
the place in the Women’s Singles draw reserved for the top seed.
According
to the seeding, Troshneva’s place should be occupied by the Dutch Team
champion Li Jiao. With Li’s withdrawal, the Russian world number 215
will face England’s Kelly Sibley (no. 171) in the round of the last 32;
arguably a less daunting proposition.
Drinkhall Wins the British Summit
Besides
Elena Troshneva there is another young player in an excellent position
in St. Petersburg. England’s Paul Drinkhall is only eighteen but
probably the best player on the British Isles.
He recorded a
4-0 win over Welshman Adam Robertson; the same score line as when he
beat Igor Rubtsov in the round before. Therefore he has a clean record
of 8-0 in terms of games in the Men’s Singles event so far.
However,
the Englishman is not that superior as you may think. He won six of
eight games by only a two points margin. Still, it is admirable how
mature the teenager has already performed against most experienced
players. Drinkhall will now face Austria’s defender Chen Weixing.
Boll against Team Mate
Defending
Men’s Singles champion Timo Boll did not experience a great deal of
resistance so far. Latvia’s Olegs Kartuzovs and Czech Lubomir Jancarik
were both far away from winning a game against the German. In the round
of 32, the world number 7 will be challenged by Portugal’s Marcos
Freitas (no. 87), Boll’s team-mate from Borussia Düsseldorf.
Today’s Matches for a Medal
Men’s Doubles quarter-finals:
BOLL, Timo / SUSS, Christian (GER) - LUNDQVIST, Jens / GERELL, Pär (SWE)
FREITAS, Marcos / APOLONIA, Tiago (POR) - CHEN, Weixing / GARDOS, Robert (AUT)
KARAKASEVIC, Aleksandar / GRUJIC, Slobodan (SRB) - SCHLAGER, Werner (AUT) / KEEN, Trinko (NED)
CRISAN, Adrian / FILIMON, Andrei (ROU) - SVENSSON, Robert / PERSSON, Jon (SWE)
Women’s Doubles Quarter-Finals:
TOTH, Krisztina / POTA, Georgina (HUN) - LI, Qian (POL) / KOTIKHINA, Irina (RUS)
PAVLOVICH, Veronika (BLR) / FADEEVA, Oksana (RUS) - FEHER, Gabriela / ERDELJI, Ana-Maria (SRB)
KOSTROMINA, Tatyana (BLR) / SOLJA, Amelie (GER) - TAN MONFARDINI, Wenling / STEFANOVA, Nikoleta (ITA)
XU, Jie / PARTYKA, Natalia (POL) - PAOVIC, Sandra / BAKULA, Andrea (HRV)
Source: www.ittf.com
